Wal-mart Developer Withdraws Proposal Before Planning Board

August 31, 2004|By LEE FOSTER; Courant Staff Writer

VERNON — The development firm that proposed building a Wal-Mart store withdrew its planning application Monday, just in time to save planning officials from having to hold a public hearing on a plan that could not legally be approved.

The planning office received notice Monday that W/S Development of Massachusetts was withdrawing its application, Senior Planner Thomas Joyce said.

A public hearing was scheduled to begin Thursday at a regular planning and zoning commission meeting.

The town inland wetlands commission had denied permits in June for a plan to build a 186,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter off Exit 67 of I-84. Because of controversy surrounding the proposal, the public hearing on the project before the wetlands commission lasted for nearly six months.

According to state and local regulations, the project could not go forward without wetlands permits. But until Monday, W/S had not withdrawn its separate application for planning approval. On Aug. 12, the developer extended the deadline for opening a public hearing, causing officials to wonder if the development firm was planning to go through with the hearing anyway, Joyce said.

Proceeding on that premise, Joyce sent a memo to commissioners Thursday asking them to consider an intensified meeting schedule, including some Saturdays in September and October.

``I was going to go to the meeting Thursday to hear what they were proposing,'' commission member Lamont Aheart said Monday. ``I was under the assumption they'd see how planning and zoning would react to their plan before going back to inland wetlands. I didn't know what their approach would be. I was just going to be there.''

Solomon Kerensky, attorney for W/S Development, could not be reached for comment Monday.

With W/S Development off the agenda, Thursday's meeting will include an application for a Walgreens Pharmacy at West and Union streets and discussion of a scenic road ordinance proposed by the conservation commission.

The meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Vernon Senior Center, 26 Park Place.